Major Car Restrictions, Large “Safety Zones” Come to Lower Market Street

At long last, private automobiles are prohibited from turning on to most of lower Market Street downtown. City officials implemented the change yesterday with a press conference in front of one of two large “safety zones” — painted bulb-outs — that were also completed as part of the “Safer Market Street” project.

SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin said broad support for getting cars off Market “shows how far we’ve come in San Francisco.” Even the SF Chronicle called it “a sensible shift” in an editorial today. “San Francisco’s downtown needs to be a safe place that accommodates more than just cars zipping through intersections.”

“I think there’s been an incredible amount of consensus in City Hall and around Vision Zero and Safer Market Street,” said Judson True, chief of staff for Assemblyman David Chiu, who pushed for a car-free Market on the Board of Supervisors. “We have to take more and more steps in this direction.”

Parking control officers were out enforcing the turn bans today, as ABC 7 reported.

The city’s largest “safety zones,” as the SFMTA calls them, were installed on corners at Grant and Mason streets.

See more coverage of the turn restrictions from ABC, the SF Examiner, the Chronicle, NBC, and Hoodline.